The invention relates to a thin-film magnetic head having a head face and comprising a magnetoresistive element oriented transversely to the head face and a flux-guiding element of a magnetically permeable material terminating in the head face, a peripheral area of the magnetoresistive element extending parallel to the head face being present opposite the flux-guiding element for forming a magnetic connection between the magnetoresistive element and the flux-guiding element.
A magnetic head of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,593, herewith incorporated by reference. The known magnetic head is a read head which is used for detecting magnetic fields representing information on a magnetic recording medium moving with respect to the magnetic head, particularly a magnetic tape. The magnetic head comprises a ferrite substrate which constitutes a magnetic yoke together with two aligned layer-shaped flux guides of a nickel-iron alloy. The magnetic head also comprises an elongate layer-shaped magnetoresistive element (MR element) provided with equipotential strips, which element has contact faces at two opposite ends and has such a magnetic anisotropy that the easy axis of magnetization at least substantially coincides with its longitudinal axis. The MR element is arranged within the magnetic yoke in such a way that a gap present between the flux guides is bridged by the MR element. The flux guides have facing end portions which are present opposite peripheral areas of the MR element extending parallel to the longitudinal axis. A quartz insulation layer extends between the ferrite substrate and the electrically conducting MR element and between the MR element and the electrically conducting flux guides. In the known magnetic head a non-magnetic material is thus present in the overlap areas constituted by the peripheral areas of the MR element and the facing end portions of the flux guides.
A drawback of the known magnetic head is that, due to the distance between the peripheral areas of the MR element, which distance is caused by the non-magnetic material, and the opposite end portions of the flux guides, only a small part of the magnetic flux originating from the magnetic recording medium is actually passed through the MR element. In other words, the known magnetic head has a low efficiency.